You know what’s really awesome? The surprisingly high number of photos that come up when you type “awkward cat family photos” into Google Images. Like there were so many that only a fraction of them made it into this post — the ten absolute best of the best awkward of the awkwardEST. Without further ado, here they are in all their stunning glory.

10.

A classic, there’s too much to love about this picture: the mid-90’s snowflake sweater, the exact same facial expression being shared by both pet and owner, the miniature Santa hat. But the best part of all is clearly the huge cat head floating around to the left.

9.

A similar dramatic cat inset, only this time everyone’s wearing matching turtlenecks. #win

8.

A man lovingly shields his beloved cat from a frightening game of laser tag. Wait, is that a mullet or a rattail?

7.

And is this cat trying to escape? (Can you blame him?)

6.

These eyes…so soulful. And ladies, this one’s wrapped in garland (I hope).

5.

Um… Thank goodness for big cats!

4.

This picture leaving you feeling super jelly? Have no fear; you too can turn your cat into the mythical creature of your dreams with this inflatable unicorn horn for cats. They also make one for adults.

3.

Two out of the three cats in this picture are too embarrassed to even look up at the camera.

2.

Best feline photo bomb. Ever.

1. 

And lastly, there’s these people who thought it would be a good idea to paint themselves like cats. That scowling kitten on the pregnant belly is going to give me nightmares well into the foreseeable future.

10 Most Awkward Cat Family Photos

The bond between us and our dogs and cats is much stronger than that of just mere pets… we prefer to think of them as servants or slaves. Minions, even. And the lesson we learned when we tried to create that race of supermen (don’t ask) was you gotta treat your minions properly.

Just like grown males ages 25 – 40, pets need toys, too. More so, even, since they can’t leave the house as easily as us. It’s important to keep your pets entertained to give them a fulfilling life, and ward off a possible mutiny.  That’s why we’ve compiled this list of Pet Toys – they look so fun, you’ll want to play with them yourself!

Whack-a-Mouse Cat Toy

Whack-a-Mole’s not that hard, it just involves a little agility and a lot of reflexes – which makes it perfect for cats, because either of those traits can fit into the phrase “… has the ________ of a cat.” Replace the mole with a mouse and replace the machine that operates it with a human sucker, and you have a fairground game that cats can play, too. You can’t say that for the Milk Can Ball Toss.

Check Amazon for the Whack-a-Mouse Cat Toy

Cowboy Dog Rider Costume

Sigh… If only we could ride our dog like that… We’ll have to live vicariously through the 8″ plastic cowboy, instead. The Cowboy Dog Rider Costume makes the comings and goings of your dog into a funny joke, and if it tries to shake the costume off, then it’s a free rodeo right in your living room!

Buy the Cowboy Dog Rider Costume Here

Cats Attack Scratching Post

It’s something  every cat owner knows, but none of them want to admit: if your cat were ten times bigger, it would eat you. Just be thankful it is the size that it is, and let it unleash its animalistic fury on other pint-sized objects.  This Cats Attack Scratching Post gives Fluffy its own cardboard downtown Tokyo to terrorize, so maybe it’ll show mercy on your couch.

Buy the Cats Attack Scratching Post Here

Zombie Foot Dog Toy

Dogs leave the darned things on our doorsteps, don’t they? If it’s not their latest hunting trophy, then it’s an undead severed appendage. Zombie lovers will have a lot of fun with this Zombie Foot Dog Toy, and dogs will too because really it’s not hard to entertain a dog.

Buy the Zombie Foot Dog Toy Here

To Scarborough Fair Hats for Cats

Your cat pee somewhere it shouldn’t have? We recommend punishing it by buying it an adorable hat. You’ll love these Hats for Cats from To Scarborough Fair, with a wide variety of styles and motifs. As for your cat… it doesn’t appreciate the subtleties of fashion.

Buy the To Scarborough Fair Hats for Cats Here

Duckbilled Dog Muzzle

A dog with a duckbill looks like a science experiment gone wrong (or right?), but if the platypus can make do, so can Fido. Soften the “BDSM” undertones of standard muzzles with this funny Duckbilled Dog Muzzle. Not only does it effectively prevent your canine from barking or biting, it also prevents him or her from being taken seriously!

Check Amazon for the Duckbilled Dog Muzzle

Shark Nano Pet Bed

Jaws may have scared a generation from swimming in the ocean, but it went right over our pets’ heads! Believe it or not, the best part about the Shark Nano Pet Bed isn’t the badass shark design – the nano technology material is antiseptic and lightweight, meaning this thing is clean, odorless, and easy to move!

Check Amazon for the Shark Nano Pet Bed

Bowser Beer for Dogs

Now you don’t have to drink alone! As you might have guessed, Bowser Beer for Dogs is beer for dogs – the special ingredients (including malt barley) is high in protein and great for shiny coats and joint health. It is non-alcoholic, though, but that’s for the best… you know how Fido gets after he’s had a few.

Check Amazon for the Bowser Beer for Dogs

Pet Toys Fido Would Buy If His Card Wasn’t Maxed Out

Quite possibly the cutest images that you will see on the Internet this week, Japanese artist Hiroko Kubota recently started selling a series of custom shirts that feature kittens and adult cats peeking out of shirt pockets on a typical men’s dress shirt. These cute little furballs are hand-stitched onto the shirt making each fairly unique.

While Kubota can only create a few of these shirts at a time, she has turned a nice profit on the feline-wear.  According to the Huffington Post, Kubota sells the shirts on her Etsy store for approximately $250 to $300 per creation and is currently sold out of all designs. She also features the designs on her Flickr page if you want to check out more of the shirts.

We picked out our top 10 favorite designs and featured them below. Check out the pocket shirt cats!

As Seen on the Internets: Pocket Shirt Cats

It had to happen at some point, right? Forget the Disney Princesses as fierce Jedi warriors. Combining Grumpy Cat with classic scenes in Disney animated films is just brilliant. Developed by digital artist Eric Proctor (otherwise known as TsaoShin on DeviantArt), this collection of artwork inserts everyone’s favorite disgruntled feline into films such as The Little Mermaid, Aladdin and The Lion King.

Developed within Photoshop, these hilarious scenes will make you want a full animated feature starring good ole Tardar Sauce. After earning some magic Internet points at Reddit, Proctor plans to continue the series with a scene from Tangled and Beauty and the Beast. You can keep up with his future work on his DeviantArt page here.

Check out the entire collection, to date, of the Grumpy Cat Disney mashups. There’s also a bonus 1080p Grumpy Cat wallpaper, created by Proctor, at the end of the article (click to expand), enjoy!

“Circle of No”

“A Whole New No”

“Part of Your No”

1080p Grumpy Cat Wallpaper

This is What Happens When You Mix Grumpy Cat and Disney Films

Helping us take another inevitable step towards Idiocracy, a creative agency and Dutch beer brand Amstel partnered up to develop and launch a promotion that offers up a free can of Amstel beer to the public. The catch? To get that can of frosty brew, each person has to stand in front of a vending machine in a public location for three minutes without doing anything remotely important.

Want to answer your smartphone? Sorry, you lose. Want to have a conversation with a friend? Better luck next time. You have to stand on a marker in front of the machine and stare into space for three minutes. It’s probably best just to turn off your brain and avoid all temptation to think about that YouTube video you just watched of the cat that licks the vacuum cleaner hose. Seriously, why is that cat licking the hose?

This is somewhat similar to Samsung’s recent advertisement that rewarded people with a brand-new Samsung S4, but only if they could win a 60-minute staring contest with numerous distractions surrounding them. Check out the promotional video for the beer vending machine below. Embrace the apathy. Or don’t.

Beer Vending Machine

Yes, Please: The Vending Machine That Rewards Apathy With Free Beer

As any savvy Internet user already knows, the Web’s incredible multimedia capabilities are mainly utilized for the photographic capture of cats doing funny, crazy, and often quite ridiculous things.  Purina, a major manufacturer of pet foods, knows this as well.  And thus, the time has again for “the Friskies,” a battle royale, if you will, of cat videos.

For “The Friskies” 2013, videos are entered into one of four categories.  Those categories are Cat Comedy, which is the classic straight-up humorous cat actions; Rescue Cat, which focuses on rescued and ex-shelter cats; Catventure, which features cats doing crazy things that we can’t possibly understand; and Pursuit of Food/Treat, which the ancient primal hunt of wild conflicts with a modern-day household.

Last year’s winners were taken from some 1,400 entrants.  Here are my picks from what’s left of this year’s crop.

Cat Comedy – The printer must die.

Rescue Cat – Ancient differences settled with only slight conflict.

Catventure – Leaves can make for an awesome, but mysteriously dangerous place.

Pursuit of Food/Treat – Windows, a blessing and a curse.

Ultimately, the winners (including finalists and semi-finalists) will be awarded their share of $25,000 in New York on October 15th, but what’s great is that in the meantime, Purina will be donating more than 250,000 cans of cat food to 20 partner animal-rescue organizations.

Cats Continue to Dominate the Internet with ‘The Friskies’ 2013

I have a love-hate relationship with Pinterest. (Don’t know what I’m talking about? Ask your girlfriend/wife/female friend; she’ll fill you in). On the one hand, Pinterest has some pretty decent recipes and gift ideas. On the other, it makes me feel totally lame that there are kids out there getting organic kale-filled quiches shaped like Elmo for lunch, while my child is lucky if he gets a quesadilla.

Over the last couple years, Pinterest has just gotten more and more over-the-top. To the point of hilarity in many cases. Here are some of the most ridiculous “pins” /DIY ideas of all.

1. Wine Cork Chair

Okay, first of all, Pinterest has many variations of the wine cork chair, which is just crazy. Second of all, why would anyone want a chair made out of wine corks? Third of all, if you have this many wine corks lying around, you should probably seek some help. That’s a lot of wine.

 2. Crocheted Man Shorts

These are honestly the dumbest shorts in the history of shorts, and this picture is just.so.gross.

3. Toilet Paper Roll “Art”

I get it: it’s cool to make “art” from the crap around your house. But seriously? It’s toilet paper rolls, on your wall. Sure it might look okay photographed from the right angle, enhanced with the right Instagram filter, but the reality is it’s still totally going to look like toilet paper rolls, on your wall.

4. Weird Things Made Out of Vegetables/Fruit

Ok, This is actually sort of cool. But seriously, if your kid will only eat their veggies if they’re in the shape of a poodle, they are in for a rude awakening (or you’re in for a lot of work).

5. Recycled Pizza Boxes

You know what’s even cooler than toilet paper rolls on your wall? Greasy pizza boxes on your wall!

6. Crafting with Cat Hair

Think this is a joke? It’s not. Go ahead and pretend to be grossed out, but you can purchase the commonly “pinned” book here.

7. Homemade “Pokebra”

There’s just nothing sexier than a Pokemon Master.

8. Anything Involving Mason Jars

I was at Goodwill the other day and they were selling their old mason jars for like $6 apiece. They must have caught on to what a highly sought-after commodity the mason jar is on Pinterest. Mason jar wine glasses, mason jar chandeliers, mason jar snow globes…the possibilities are endless. And mostly just pointless.

9. Anything involving Mustaches

Don’t get me wrong, mustaches are pretty sweet when they are actually on someone’s face, but this whole “let’s slap a fake mustache on everything and call it hip” trend has gotten totally out of control and needs to go away.

10. Beer Bottle Christmas Tree

Because nothing says “Merry Christmas!” like a tree made out of old Heineken bottles…

11. Non-Edible Bacon Things

There are tons of bacon-related recipes, and that’s just fine  amazing. But there are also a lot of strange bacon-inspired crafts floating around on Pinterest that the world could probably do without, such as the pictured felt bacon scarf. Like, really, can you imagine seeing someone actually wearing this thing out in public?

12. Cuddle Pillow

And finally, is this not one of the saddest things you’ve ever seen? (Also, this girl must have serious personality issues to be this attractive and still in need of one of these “pillows” to cuddle her to sleep at night).

As Seen on the Internets: Most Ridiculous DIY Pinterest Ideas

As I sat in the tattoo parlor lobby a few years ago, nervously waiting to get my first ink, I flipped through the pages of one of the artists’ portfolio books and came across a tattoo of a very realistically drawn cat portrait with a banner underneath it that simply said “2005 – 2007.” I remember kind of laughing to myself and thinking, “Wow, that cat must have been pretty amazing to have secured a permanent spot on its owners arm after being around for only two years.”

I realize now that pet tattoos* are way more common than I ever imagined. Most of the ones out there are pretty tame, but then there are others that take it to a whole new level of weird. Here are just a few of the strangest pet tattoos, in no particular order.

*Pet tattoos meaning tattoos of animals, on people. Not to be confused with the controversial new trend that involves actually tattooing your pet.

1.

This tattoo has so much weirdness going on I’m not even sure where to begin…

2.

I wonder if this “fur baby” is one of those dogs that’s spoiled enough to get its own doggy hot tub.

4. 

She’s totally judging this person’s decision to go through with this tattoo.

5.

Let’s be honest: if your dog looked up at you with a smile like this and asked you to please tattoo his/her face on your body, you probably wouldn’t be able to say no either.

6.

I’m not quite sure how to define that look this cat is making, but I do know he’s staring directly into my soul with those eyes.

7.

I’m hoping maybe a young child lovingly designed this tattoo for their mom or dad. If not, it’s just kind of sad. Buddy deserves better.

8.

At first glance I was like, “oh how sweet, one big happy dog family!” But then I noticed the sad half-a-dog hanging out by himself over to the left. Poor thing even got (mostly) cropped out of the photo.

9.

I wonder if Keyboard Cat’s biggest fan is still happy this will be on his body “4 life.”

10.

I bet this person is always getting comments from strangers like, “Awww…what an adorable killer hamster you have on your arm!”

11.

Before cat bearding was a thing…

12.

Mostly, I just really love that this dog is named “Cupcake.”

13.

This one is so over-the-top ridiculous it’s actually pretty awesome.

14.

And this one brings up so many questions. Like why is only one side of the mouth complete? Why are the eyes different colors? Why would anyone permanently put this on their body? Just…why?

15.

Apparently this person wasn’t ashamed to show the world that she inflicted this horrible haircut upon her innocent dog.

16. 

The tongue placement here was either an accident or an attempt at being funny. Either way, it’s just gross.

17.

…But not as gross as this (I’m so sorry; it cannot be unseen).

Super Weird Pet Tattoos

Meme THIS, hipsters.

I love a good meme as much as the next internet addict web savvy individual, though it’s not often that one makes me want to go adopt a cat right this second so I can be part of the phenomenon. (Side note, why isn’t meme-nomenon a word yet? Probably because it’s hard to read and not think of these guys.)

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Cat Beard aka Cat Bearding. The simple act of getting nose to nose with a furry feline results in an amazing optical illusion turning cats into the cutest facial hair around. Bonus points for those who get the crazy eyes in their photos for extra LOLs.

Everyone knows the furry underbelly of a cat is the softest, most pet-able part, but who knew it also served as an excellent disguise? Well, I suppose it only works as a disguise in photos – I’ve yet to meet a cat that would be chill enough to spend more than about four seconds held in front of its owner’s face.

If you happen to have an amicable cat, do yourself and your feline friend a favor and snap a cat beard photo to preserve this meme in your own collection forever.

Extra Credit for Cat Bearding WITH a Beard

Oh, and if you don’t have a cat…

Oh, and if you have two cats…

Best Thing I’ve Seen All Day: Cat Bearding

Springing from the creative mind of San Francisco’s Jenny Parks, these killer feline-infused illustrations depict how a collection of superheroes, villains and pop culture icons would look like if they were cats. Parks got started with an adaptation of the first 11 doctors in the Doctor Who series all in cat form. She called the illustration “Doctor Mew.”

Some of her latest works include all members of the Avengers, Spider-Man, the Dark Knight, Sherlock Holmes, Harry Potter, Sam and Dean Winchester from Supernatural, Daryl Dixon from The Walking Dead and Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games. In addition to doing commissions, Parks also sells her work online here through Etsy, Redbubble and Pirate Corgi Studios in t-shirt, poster, button and postcard format.

Check out some of our favorite illustration of Cat superheroes, villains and more below:

Captain Catmerica

Hawkeye

Hulkitty

Iron Cat

Lokitty

Thor

Black Widow

Spider-Cat

Catniss

Daryl Dixon

Dexpurr Morgan

Hairy Pawter

The Dark Kitty and Bane

Sam and Dean Wincatser

Purrlock Holmes and Catson

Doctor Mew

What Superheroes and Villains Would Look Like As Cats